


Love To Be Alone

by blueemissary (robinsword)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Protective Thor (Marvel), Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 22:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16880628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinsword/pseuds/blueemissary
Summary: Bruce has been injected with an unknown substance that causes his emotions to fluctuate more than usual. Which isn't great when the giant inside of you is made completely up of your strongest emotion. After a particularly destructive day, Bruce refuses to leave the containment room and Thor, who's still waiting on a solution from Dr Cho, has nothing to offer him but his company.---"… it reacts to gamma radiation and attacks your cerebral cortex. Affects your emotions. Which probably explains why he - you - went so…”“Crazy?” Bruce’s voice is muffled by his arm and this time there’s a little edge of anger in it. There’s no signs of green yet, but Thor doesn’t let himself look away any more.---Written for the dialogue prompts: "Can I help you?"and"I love being left alone."





	Love To Be Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Read the summary for context on this little scenario!

“Can I help you?” 

Thor has to refrain himself from wincing. There’s a slight hoarseness to Bruce’s voice. Transformations are never easy for him. And today is no exception. 

But that’s not all. What’s worse than the hoarseness is how positively  _empty_ Bruce’s voice sounds. It’s dry (which isn’t unlike Bruce) but also  _hollow_ (which is). It’s a tone of indifference that sends a shiver up Thor’s spine and makes the hairs stand up on his arms as the cold emptiness seeps into his skin. But he steels himself - Bruce isn’t in any shape to pick himself up right now so it’ll have to be Thor - and slowly heads to where Bruce is curled up by the wall. 

Bruce’s arms hug his knees, which are drawn up to his chest, bare back pressed against the cold glass of the containment room wall. His eyes are closed but Thor can tell from the tension in his shoulders that he is acutely - nay,  _painfully -_ aware of Thor’s presence, no doubt judging his movements carefully through the sound of his footsteps as he approaches. 

Thor settles down next to him, far enough away that there’s a gap between them. He’s unsure of if his touch would be a comfort or cause a panic right now. Not when Bruce is like this. Copying Bruce’s posture, he brings his knees up so that he can rest his arms on them and is distinctly made aware of how much room he takes up when compared to Bruce. 

Who somehow seems to have shrunk even more so than usual in his curled up position. How can it be that a being who grows to be so large can also make himself so small? 

 

* * *

 

 

Thor waits for a moment, wondering if Bruce will say anything.

But he doesn’t. 

He doesn’t even open his eyes. Just… breathes. Deeply. Deliberately. Like every other time when he’s trying to to keep himself under control. It’s so painful to witness Bruce like this - so despondent - that Thor has to look away for a moment. He fixes his eyes on the opposite wall, the faded reflection of the two of them distorted and melding together in the concave glass. 

Eventually, he breaks the silence. 

“The results of the tests you and Doctor Cho carried out came through.” 

No response from Bruce. At least not verbally. Out of the corner of his eye, however, Thor does see Bruce’s eye’s crack open a fraction. So he’s listening. Well, that’s a start. Yet Thor just grimaces; the results aren’t exactly ones to lift his spirits. He continues anyway, looking down to study the lines of his palms as he relays what Helen Cho had told him. 

“You were right. That  _stuff_  -” (there hadn’t been enough time for her to identify the alien substance, according to Cho, just enough to test Bruce’s hypothesis)  - “that they injected you with… it reacts to gamma radiation and attacks your cerebral cortex. Affects your emotions. Which probably explains why he - you - went so…” 

“Crazy?” Bruce’s voice is muffled by his arm and this time there’s a little edge of anger in it. There’s no signs of green yet, but Thor doesn’t let himself look away any more. 

Before he can even think of what words would be the most comforting, Bruce’s head raises, finally. And he continues to fill the silence himself, this time with an unrestrained bitterness that Thor isn’t sure if he likes any better than the emptiness. “You should go. I can feel him right now. And with this, this,  _shit_  in my blood… I’m not safe to be around.” 

Thor’s rebuttal is instantaneous. “It wasn’t your fault. Or Hulk’s. Hel, he looked in agony, I doubt he knew what he was doing -”

“He destroyed three floors,” Bruce snaps at him. “Fault or no fault, he’s not safe for anyone.” His eyes snap sharply to meet Thor’s. It takes Thor’s breath away a little to see them already glowing with flashes of Hulk’s green. It’s not yet been long after Bruce changed back and Thor wasn’t even aware that Hulk could resurface so soon after. There’s also a slight growling edge to Bruce’s voice. “Get out of here, Thor. I don’t want to hurt you too.”

“Bruce -”

“It’s  _fine_. I’m  _fine_. In here. By myself. You all know me! I  _love_ being left alone.” It’s said in such a sarcastic tone, one similar to the one that Bruce so often loves to use when he’s making jokes. And yet it’s also not the same. It’s not a joke. It’s just edged with hostility and each sentence comes with a grinding of teeth that holds back his clearly barely-contained anger. 

The anger stays in the air between them, un-punctured by the logical argument that had died on Thor’s lips the second Bruce had raised his voice. And Thor knows he  _should_  argue. Should prove to Bruce that he’s wrong to blame himself, to punish himself. But right now the hostility in Bruce, hostility aimed at  _Thor_ , is such a shock to his system that all he can do is gape. 

When he finally gets a hold of himself, his voice is soft, struggling to make it barely above a whisper as his eyes burn. “Bruce.” He reaches a hand out but  stops himself from touching before it gets more than half way through the gap between them. Instead he just rests it on the floor, an invitation like many he’s given before. He continues, “We are  _not_ going to abandon you.”

And just like that the green fades back to brown and Bruce’s hand finds Thor’s on the floor, griping it as tightly as his eyelids are squeezing together, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. Thor shuffles closer, just an inch. And that seems to be enough because Bruce hurries to lean the rest of the way into Thor’s arms, burying his forehead on Thor’s chest as Thor’s strong arms bring him into a close embrace. 

They stay like that, Thor rubbing soothingly in circles along Bruce’s back, like his mother used to do when he was young and upset or when his frustrations drove him to tears. 

“You don’t have to do this alone,” he reassures again and Bruce finally lets go. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also on [tumblr ](https://asgardianbruce.tumblr.com/)


End file.
